Despite the fact that every culture has its unique way of appreciating literature, the art of translation has made it almost entirely possible to understand and interpret literature from every single culture. Each literary content has one or several themes that might conform to others in works from different cultural backgrounds. The three stories have a common theme that will be used to depict the importance of studying literature from different cultural backgrounds.
Summary of ‘’Always the Sea’’
The story takes us through the life of a woman known as Irene. Irene usually spends her time at a summer resort in a beautiful hotel in Costa Brava. She has experienced many encounters with men but reckons that no one ever made her feel the way Eduardo did. She recalls some of the memorable moments she experienced with Eduardo and among the best thing they did together was swimming in the sea. Irene is now an old woman, and she knows well that it is difficult for her to replicate the swimming abilities she had during her the earlier days. Therefore, due to her fear and loneliness, she decides to do the unthinkable by swimming to the island where she gets exhausted and eventually succumbs to death. The main themes of the story include love which is manifested through the interaction between Irene and Eduardo. ‘’Irene, having gone through various lovers, has never again experienced.’’ Another important theme in the story has to do with loneliness. Irene is lonely that is why she embarks on a journey to ‘’her’’ hotel, ‘’when she feels like being alone.’’ Self-denial is also manifested when Irene decides to die on the sea due to fear and loneliness.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Summary of ‘’An Encounter on a Train’’
The story is about a woman known as Lucia who experiences a strange feeling after an encounter with a man on the train. ‘’That’s strange.’’ That was her exclamation on stepping out of the train. The woman is experiencing a nostalgic feeling after her separation with a man who she had met on the train. Lucia haunted by her past attempts every single thing to make the man on the train pay attention to her. With the kids constantly running forth and back disrupting her peace, she compared herself now and in the past and shamelessly noticed the conspicuous differences. ‘’her beauty is gone.’’ Lucia is romantically attracted to the man that is why she feels so ‘’strange’’ after alighting the train. The themes present in the story include regrets shown by how Lucia is not proud of herself and even questions her appearance. Love is also a theme as Lucia asserts that ‘’nobody had loved her’’ all this while.
Summary Of ‘’Peonies and Forget-Me-Nots’’
The story is about two individuals, a man and a lady who has met in something sort of a business where the lady acts as a go-between. The job, which was supposed to take a maximum five minutes, turns out to be an affair of reminiscing where the two try to connect on their meeting before. ‘'Do you remember,'' ‘'our last year at the university.'' They also remember some of the love moments they had together. The main that presents in the story is of that of love which is rekindled in their flashback story.
It is important to note that the dominant theme of the three stories is romantic love. All the three stories give an account of a close relationship between a man and a woman that is inclined towards love. It is, therefore, crucial to appreciate that studying literature from different national cultures and in different languages is important as it assists the reader in having a diversified perception of different themes. For instance, the notion of love from the three cultures will assist the audience by ensuring that they have a wider scope of what love entails in various cultures. Studying literature from other national cultures and languages will enabled an individual to become open-minded so that they can overcome the barriers created by biases and prejudice. It also enables an individual to understand various similarities and differences of people as portrayed by the themes presented in the stories.
References
‘’ Always the Sea’’ translated from Spanish by Barbara F. Ichiishi, New England Review
‘’ An Encounter on a Train’’ Translated from Spanish by Annaliese Hoehling
‘’ Poenies and Forget-Me-Nots’’ Translated from the Bulgarian by Magdalena Levy and Alexis Levitin.
